Lesson9TheBluestEye

The Bluest Eye(Excerpts)

by Toni Morrison

Guide to Reading

When we discuss contemporary American literature, it is impossible not to mention the name and works of Toni Morrison. A Nobel Prize winner for literature, she has written up to now seven novels, making significant contributions to the depiction of African American experience. Unlike some African American writers who expose white racism against the blacks in a direct way, Morrison’s exploration tends to be introverted1, focusing on the relationships within the black community. Her novels often reveal how the dominant white culture has deprived the black people of their own cultural values and the destructive impact this cultural mutilation2has brought about among the black people. Although most of her novels are apparently set in her home town in Ohio, they not only depict the black

1个性内向的：人的特征为兴趣或是盘据脑海的只有自己或是自己的想法；害羞或是排斥; 含蓄的; 内倾的；不爱交际的; introvert vt.使(思想)内向; 使内省extroverted外倾的：对其他的人或环境如与自身相反的或之外的事物感兴趣的；喜群居的或外出的：

2毁损；残缺；切断; mutilate毁伤；使残废Her arm was mutilated in the accident.她的胳膊在车祸中受了重伤。The pilot was mutilated in the plane crash and now has only one leg."飞行员在飞机失事事故中残废了,现在只剩下了一条腿。" 破坏；把…删改得支离破碎You've mutilated the story by making such big changes.你作了这么大的改变，把故事弄得支离破碎了。

experience in that region, but tell about shared human conditions with universal themes of love, death, betrayal, and the individual’s responsibility for his or her own fate.

Morrison’s first novel The Bluest Eye, from which the following text is taken, tells the heartbreaking story of Pecola Breedlove, a vulnerable black girl, living in Lorain, Ohio, in the early 1940s. In a society where blue eyes and whiteness are equated with beauty, and therefore, goodness3and happiness while blackness is perceived4ugliness, Pecola’s greatest desire is to have blue eyes. Each night, without fail5, she prays for pretty blue eyes. She believes that having blue eyes is the key to wiping out all the unbearable miseries for her family—their hopeless poverty, the constant fighting between the parents, the contempt of other children, etc. She imagines that with blue eyes, she will become a beautiful girl loved by everyone. In her wild6imagination Pecola feels that the color of her eyes has been finally transformed. Ironically, instead of love, what she gets in the end is the violence of her father’s rape. Rather than happiness, she sinks deeper into the abyss of misery. Her dream of finding shelter in her fantasy of whiteness mercilessly destroyed, the

3Goodness is the quality of being kind, helpful, and honest. 善良

4察觉；理解；发觉; 把…看作；认为

5一定，必定I will give you a present on your birthday without fail. 你生日时我一定送你一份礼物。

6疯狂的；胡乱的; 非常激动的; 狂妄的；不切实际的；异想天开的；不合常理的

girl is thrown into7 madness.

Following is one of the most vivid scenes in the novel. In this part the author describes a particular type of blacks—brown-skinned people. They hold themselves high above the other blacks. These sugar-brown or milk-brown girls are from better families, “go to land-grant colleges8, learn how to do the white man’s work with refinement9,” marry successfully, living in their own inviolable worlds in quiet, black neighborhoods. With a certain proportion of white blood in them, they feel superior to other black people. Like the whites, they detest blackness10, and project11their hatred and contempt for it onto Negroes with darker skins. They blindly believe in the mainstream white cultural values and imitate the white middle class in every possible way. They are unable to establish healthy relationships with their own people. Geraldine is such a woman, and her son Junior is on the way of becoming one like her. Incapable of human love, Geraldine finds comfort in her cat. So when her cat is killed (by her son), she pours all her anger onto Pecola and cruelly drives the poor girl from her home. Once again, Pecola is made a victim. Yet, Geraldine, who has

7使…（突然）陷入某一状态

8接受政府赠地的学院(或大学); land grant政府赠予地：政府准予把公共用地用来建铁路、公路或州立大学

9(感情、趣味、举止、言谈等的)优雅，高尚，文雅

10黑人的特征(或特性、气质)

11把(自己的感情、思想等)投射给他人Don't project your guilt feelings onto me!别把你自己内疚的感情往我身上搬。

victimized12this helpless black girl, is also a victim herself—a victim of racial prejudice that has penetrated into13 the minds of black people like her and warped14their true identity.

This scene is vivid and disturbing15. After reading the story the reader finds it hard to forget the characters and their fate. Realistic16details, metaphorical language and the freshest and most striking17prose all contribute to Morrison’s effective exploration of complex themes through telling simple stories.

Text

1.They come from Mobile18. Aiken19. From Newport News20.

12使作牺牲；使受害，使受苦

1313进入；(思想、感情等)深入于These new ideas are penetrating into the minds of the younger generation.这些新思想正在渗透到年轻一代人的头脑里。

14使(性格等)不正常；使乖戾；使有偏见Years of living alone may warp one's personality.长期的孤身生活会使人的性格变得乖戾。

15Something that is disturbing makes you feel worried or upset令人不安的，使内心不平静的

16You say that a painting, story, or movie is realistic when the people and things in it are like people and things in real life. 逼真的

17Something that is striking is very noticeable or unusual. 显著的; 不同寻常的; 突出的, 鲜明的, 引人注目的; 给人深刻印象的

18墨比尔：亚拉巴马州西南的一座城市，在长约61公里(38英里）的墨比尔河口处，位于墨西哥湾的一个海湾墨尔比湾的北海岸。约设立于1710年，该市在1813年为美国军

From Marietta21. From Meridian. And the sounds of these places in their mouths make you think of love.

When you ask them where they are from, they tilt their heads and say "Mobile" and you think you've been kissed. They say "Aiken" and you see a white butterfly glance off22 a fence with a torn wing. They say "Nagadoches" and you want to say "Yes, I will."

You don't know what these towns are like, but you love what happens to the air when they open their lips and let the names ease out.

2.Meridian. The sound of it opens the windows of a room

like the first four notes23of a hymn. Few people can say the names of their home towns with such sly24 affection. Perhaps because they don't have home towns, just places where they were born. But these girls soak up25 the juice26of their home towns, and it

队夺取前曾被法、英和西班牙拥有。在墨比尔湾战役(1864年8月）中，海军上将大卫·法拉革特击溃了一支邦联军舰队主力并确保联邦对该地区的控制。人口196,278

19在南卡罗莱纳西部

20纽波特纽斯：美国弗吉尼亚东南的独立城市，位于詹姆斯河口的汉普顿海峡外侧，诺福克西北偏北。1620年有人定居。19世纪80年代由于造船工业的兴起而羸得了经济上的重要地位。人口170,045

21玛利埃塔：美国乔治亚州西北部的一座城市，位于亚特兰大的西北方，是一个发展有飞机工业的居民区。人口44,129 22斜飞,掠过；擦过

23音符：以其形状并以其在谱表上的位置表示一定间高的符号

24Lacking or marked by a lack of candor.虚伪的：缺乏诚实的或表明缺乏诚意的

25吸收,吸取；soak【非正式用语】吸收：精神上的吸收或

never leaves them. They are thin27brown girls who have looked long at hollyhocks28 in the backyards of Meridian, Mobile, Aiken, and Baton Rouge29. And like hollyhocks they are narrow, tall, and still. Their roots are deep, their stalks are firm30, and only the top blossom nods31in the wind. They have the eyes of people who can tell what time it is by the color of the sky. Such girls live in quiet black neighborhoods where everybody is gainfully employed. Where there are porch swings32hanging from chains. Where the grass is cut with a scythe33, where rooster combs34 and sunflowers grow in the yards, and pots of bleeding

接受，尤其是急切地或轻易地

26A substance or quality that imparts identity and vitality; essence精髓：赋予特性或增添活力的物质或性质

27淡的；浅的a thin color浅色

28蜀葵：一种原产于中东地区的（蜀葵蜀葵属）高大植物，因长有大而多色的亮丽花束而被广泛培植。

29巴吞鲁日：美国路易斯安那州的首府，位于该州的中部偏东南，密西西比河上峭壁的东南中心部。此地有许多著名的南北战争前建筑。人口219,531

30健壮的：表明身体的健康状态和健康组织的机能

31sway gently back and forth, as is in a nodding motion上下摆动：弯曲上下来回移动或垂下，如在风中的花朵the

flowers were nodding in the breeze

32秋千：用绳子吊着的椅子，人可以坐在上面前后摆动作为消遣

33长柄大镰刀：有一个长长的、弯曲单刃刀片和一个长长的、弯曲柄的镰刀，用于割草或收割

34=cockscomb鸡冠花：一种一年生植物（鸡冠花青葙属），因有艳丽的扇形或羽毛状红色或黄色花束而广泛栽培